


Shout-Out To Nature Documentaries

by starkboi



Category: Avengers Academy (Video Game), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Octopus, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 10:24:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14470617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkboi/pseuds/starkboi
Summary: "Tony's not oblivious, he knows how fast word travels on this campus, and Wasp—bless her, she's mostly innocent—just doesn't know how to keep a secret. "(Or, Tony gets a pet octopus, and Steve is more than a little obsessed.)





	Shout-Out To Nature Documentaries

**Author's Note:**

> for the image prompt of steve and some tentacles square on my stony bingo card. yeah, i was just as confused.
> 
> this is very cutesy, so prepare for fluff, enjoy!

Tony glances up at the _swoosh_ of the lab door opening.

"I don't need a babysitter,” he calls out, not stopping his typing despite the incoming intrusion.

Steve's made his way to the left of Tony, studying the multiple screens in front of them, "Good,” he replies, “because I don't feel much like being a babysitter today.”

Tony scrunches his nose up at the text on screen and waves his hands for JARVIS to wipe it all away.

He sighs before shifting to face Steve fully, "So, who told you?"

Tony's not oblivious, he knows how fast word travels on this campus, and Wasp—bless her, she's mostly innocent—just doesn't know how to keep a secret. Not that this getting to Steve will in any way change the course of action, he's just going to have to attempt to work while ignoring his lizard brain’s need to fawn over this new distraction of muscle and smart mouth that’s an equal match to his own sarcastic digs.

(Those conversations that he absolutely doesn't replay over and over in his head after Steve's left.)

Right.

Steve who’s unaware of Tony’s mental warfare going on, just laughs lightly before saying, “Show me.”

 _Oookay_ , Tony can do that, no harm in a little show and tell.

“She’s over here,” Tony says, before moving to the back of his lab to show Steve where he has everything set up.

He’s led Steve over to a table with an all glass tank filled with water. Steve hesitates after Tony gestures for him to take a closer look, “She?” he asks, before letting his eyes fall on the creature inside the tank.

“Yeah, me and JARVIS got a baby girl on our hands, she might be small now, but they grow fast,” Tony explains as Steve has crouched down now, to get a better look at the tiniest octopus he’s ever seen.

She’s barely two inches long, just an orange speckled ball of squish and several skinny limbs.

“Why an octopus?” Steve asks, still so enamored by the tiny sea creature swimming around the bottom of the tank.

Tony lets himself admire Steve admiring, before he forces himself to get it together and answer Steve’s question.

“Well, it started when I couldn’t sleep one night and sometimes JARVIS puts on nature documentaries to bore me enough to knock out,” Tony pauses, and curses himself for sounding like a kid who needs to be read to sleep. “Anyways, basically, they showed this octopus stuck in a jar with the lid shut, and it was able to unscrew the jar by itself and escape, so I’ve wanted one since,” Tony finishes saying before adding, “Oh, and they also have nine brains.”  

Steve’s stood back up and turned towards Tony with a cute— _dumb, it’s so dumb, shut-up brain_ —smile on his face, “So, you’ve got a pet octopus to open jars for you?”

Tony makes a mock offended face at Steve, “How dare you presume I need anyone to open my jars,” he jokes, before saying “Now shut-up or I won’t let you feed her.”

Judging by the way Steve eye’s light up, he would very much like to do so.

And so, that’s how it all began, at first with Steve coming by every chance he got to see the octopus Tony lovingly named Octavia, until Tony got so fed up with Steve’s puppy dog eyes that he threw her feeding schedule at him and told him to come by a couple times every day to tend to her.

He doesn’t let Steve know that it’s also because he more than likes the company Steve makes.

 

* * *

 

Octavia has almost grown to her full size by the time Tony finally finds the courage to ask Steve out.

He's been working away at reviewing Octavia’s training footage recorded from earlier in the day, and she’s well past exceeded the level Tony wanted for her to be at this week and will be fully ready for a new set of tasks next month, he adores her really.

Steve is sneakily trying to give her more treats than necessary and Tony lets him slip her two more before cutting him off for the day, “Don’t spoil her now, we want to keep her humble,” he says.

Steve laughs and goes to put away her food in it’s rightful place, and Tony just decides to spit it out already.

“Hey Steve, uh—did you want to go grab a bite to eat at the shawarma stand?” Tony asks, and then adds before Steve can reply, “I’m pretty much done here for the day, so we could hang out at the park after if you wanted?”

Tony is a big dumb idiot for worrying, because Steve’s face seems more than happy with the invitation and it’s confirmed as he replies, “That sounds great, Tony.”

They both leave the lab, completely unaware of the two figures hiding out in the shadows.

 

* * *

                             

Tony’s hands sweat the whole time him and Steve are eating their dinner, and for the first time in his life, Tony finds that he doesn’t have anything to say. Mind completely blank because this is definitely a date, and it’s definitely a date with the guy he’s been crushing on since he got to the Academy.

But Steve just smiles at him, and says, “I thought I was going to have to wait forever for you to notice Octavia wasn’t the only thing keeping me coming around every day.”

Tony lets that sink into his brain for a second. _What._

“Why didn’t you just tell me?!” Tony asks with disbelief, they could have been on their _tenth_ date by now, instead of the first.

Steve laughs and tucks his head down shyly, “I didn’t want to scare you off, all those times I asked you if you wanted to go for a run at the stadium, you looked at me like I told you that your cheese fridge had just been stolen, figured you’d come to me at your own pace.”

Remember how Tony was a big dumb idiot? This just in; he has now earned the title giant big dumb idiot for this one.

“Next time, just shake some sense into me please, because I very much enjoy this,” he says, grabbing Steve’s hand in his own, as they make their way over to the park.

Steve squeezes his hand back tightly, and Tony feels the beginnings of a warmth start to bloom in his chest.

 

* * *

 

Steve had politely but forcefully insisted to come back to the lab with Tony, to say goodnight to Octavia. Tony didn’t waste energy pretending like he minded at all, and they had just made it to the door when they heard a crash from inside

Steve didn’t hesitate to kick the door in and run into the room, straight into the back where the tank is kept, Tony only a few steps behind him the whole way.

They’re met with the sight of Loki, legs and arms flailing, while trapped under—under a _huge_ tentacle, Tony immediately knows this isn’t going to end well.

That orange tentacle belongs to only one octopus, and she’s somehow tripled in size since Steve and Tony left her an hour ago.

Tony’s distracted out of his shock by a laugh he knows all too well. Enchantress is standing off to the side from all the commotion and she seems to find it hilarious as Loki is struggling to lift the tentacle off of himself to reach his scepter that had fallen just out of his grasp.

He rushes towards her, repulsor gauntlet charged, and voice tense as he asks her, “What did you two do to her?”

She smirks back at him, “It was Loki’s idea, I just came to watch the train wreck in action.”

Tony scoffs, then hisses, “You’re going to fix her, before I tell Fury to get Odin down here, and then you won’t be the only one finding a train wreck funny,” he threatens, his heart breaking at how scared the octopus must be.

She sighs, obviously annoyed by what Loki’s put on her, but nods and snaps her fingers to lift the tentacle off Loki, before Steve grips him by the collar and pulls him up, feet barely skimming the floor.

“What kind of spell did you put on her Loki?” Steve asks angrily, tone clearly making Loki aware that he was not in a mood for the usual games.

Loki’s out of breath as he tries to reply, “I wanted to turn her small again, so I could be the one to raise her, and have her be loyal to _me._ ”

Tony can’t believe the hi-jinks that are constantly ensuing on this campus, he can’t have _one_ thing untouched of his own to keep. He’s already working on coming up with stronger security to install into JARVIS’ mainframe. This will not be happening again.

But for now, they need to get Octavia back into water, and there’s only one place big enough to hold her size comfortably. And, Tony’s not particularly happy about it.

“We have to put her in the hot tub,” he says to Steve, and Steve sends him an apologetic look in return.

Then he gestures to Loki, “C’mon mastermind, you’re helping us get her up there.”

 

* * *

 

It takes Enchantress all night, and several cases of food poured into Tony’s once immaculate hot tub later, to undo what Loki made a mess of but, Octavia finally gets turned back into her normal self. And she seems much more comfortable as she happily swims around her new tank, since her old one had shattered open on the sudden impact of her growth.

Steve and Tony spent most of the morning just trying to clean up the mess, and Tony may have sent Wasp the footage of Loki’s embarrassing moment on the floor for her to post everywhere but that’s neither here nor there.

What matters is that both Steve and Tony were so extremely worried for their girl last night, that they hadn’t had time to talk about what happened between them. So, Tony stops Steve where he’s trying to sweep all the glass away and grabs hold of his hands.

“I don’t know how serious you were last night, but I really like you Steve, and I was having the best time right before we got interrupted,” Tony says, making sure Steve knows how open he’s trying to be, “I wanted to know if we could get a redo, another try at last night, one that doesn’t end in disaster?”

Steve looks so relieved, dropping one of his hands out of Tony’s to cup his cheek, “I would love that a lot,” he says, before leaning in to softly kiss Tony on his forehead.

Tony decides he gets to lose some prefixes off that title of his right about now. 

**Author's Note:**

> off topic but avengers academy has really taken over my life these past 6 months and it's so bad for my time management but so good for feeding my marvel starved soul.
> 
> any and all forms of feedback are welcomed and appreciated!


End file.
